If you’ve been to the Alki Masonic Center in The Junction, chances are it was for a meeting or party – Sound Transit has had “open houses” about West Seattle light rail there; the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle has had its holiday-season pancake breakfasts there; just last week the Center for Active Living (formerly Senior Center) announced its new name there … the events are countless.

But they aren’t the building’s main purpose. It’s home to Alki Masonic Lodge 152, a 118-year-old chapter of a centuries-old fraternity. For decades, its members have engaged in community service too – including the annual School Awards Night in Support of Our Public School System last night.

(Photos by Rick McGann. Above, L to R, Martin Monk, Delton Johnson, Tom Christie)

The lodge and its parent organization believe strongly in public education, so every year these awards are given to accomplished junior-year students from Chief Sealth International High School and West Seattle High School. The Masons are “very proud” of being able to provide this support, said Martin Monk, who emceed the event. Before the awards were presented, the lodge’s current leader, Worshipful Master Delton Johnson, expressed hope that the students would “build on what’s good in the world and foster change in what you think can be better.” He quoted Malcolm X: “The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Agreed Tom Christie, another lodge member who spoke: “Education is a lifelong process – there’s always something new to learn.”

The awards are a collaboration between the schools and the lodge – they ask administrators to nominate potential recipients. Here are the Chief Sealth students honored last night:

Charlotte Lindow
Hannah Mueller
Heran Andermariam
Sadie Ransom
Vinh Le-Truong
Eleanor Kamin (not present)
Allison Ohta (not present)

And the WSHS honorees:

Edie Branner
Ellen Rikhof
Danna Martinez
Nina Soleil Abdus-Salaam
Jhana Saboe Hutchinson
Fiona Tesfamariam
Afra Mizra
Souljah Tyson (not present)

Each honored student receives a certificate and a “monetary gift,” their hosts explained. Then the Top Students were announced – from WSHS, Edie Branner – whose interest in international affairs was noted – and Ellen Rikhof, who plans to pursue studies in marine biology, and from CSIHS, Charlotte Lindow and Alison Ohta (unable to accept in person). The Top Student winners were invited to speak, and all three who were there offered words of gratitude to their families and educators. Both schools were invited to send faculty; for WSHS, counselor Erica Nguyen and assistant principal Ron Knight were there. Knight accepted the perpetual plaque that displays the name of each year’s top two:

Today at CSIHS, principal Ray Morales was given the Sealth plaque:

(Photo courtesy Michelle Riggen-Ransom)

At last night’s event, photo ops followed the presentation, along with a pizza dinner downstairs in the big room where so many organizations have their events. And the students also went home with warm words from the Masons – Johnson called them “changemakers”; Christie observed, “I think the world is in good hands.”